Plan bee: WA 'saving the world'

The world is facing the possible extinction of an insect that underlies the production of one third of all food: the honey bee.

Reports are coming from the United States of dramatic losses in honey bee populations and one region of China was so decimated by pesticides that bees can no longer exist and workers are paid to pollinate crops by hand.

The hive, cumulative, can fly 10 times around the globe a day and can pollinate up to 60 million flowers a day

But two University of Western Australia researchers, featured in the recently-released documentary More Than Honey, might hold the key to saving the bees.

Professor Boris Baer, director of CIBER, has been studying bees for a decade with his wife and study partner, Barbara Baer. Photo: Supplied

The researchers are investigating how to safeguard the existence of colonies and the future production of food by breeding more resistant bees.

Advertisement

THE DANGER OF LOSING THE HONEY BEES

"Every third spoon of food we eat has been pollinated by a honey bee, which makes them really important agricultural animals," said Dr Barbara Baer, a researcher at the Centre for Integrative Bee Research.

Dr Barbara Baer and Professor Boris Baer at their University of Western Australia lab. Photo: Jillian McHugh

"If they die out we'd eat a lot of gruel and very little fruit. We'd have very expensive fruit and vegetables."

CIBER director Boris Baer said what people didn't realise when they reached for the insect spray was that bees were the backbone to billion-dollar industries.

"There are 80 crops that depend on the bee as a pollinator," said Boris.

Part of the battle of the bees is finding out how they'll cope with increasing world temperatures. Photo: Getty Images

"The value of pollination for Australia is between $4 and $6 billion dollars a year."

The Baers said a mix of factors were causing the international colony collapse: poisoning by pesticides, infection with verroa mites (blood-sucking, tic-like parasites), destruction of natural habitat, stress and restricted diet.

MORE THAN HONEY

A bee harvests pollen from the flowers of a wild cherry tree near Berlin. Local beekeepers are unsure whether the bee deaths lie with a mite and a virus it might be spreading or with the increased use of certain pesticides by local farmers. According to a recent report prepared by Greenpeace seven pesticides currently in use in Europe present a real danger to bees. Photo: Getty Images

Directed by the Oscar-nominated Markus Imhoof – Barbara's father – the documentary tracks the bees' global story through California, Switzerland, Germany, China and Perth, which he described as "Noah's Ark... where the last truly health bees live".

"The documentary has two aspects," said Barbara.

"One is it shows the bees in very beautiful close ups – beautiful macro shots – and so yes you can get close and cosy with bees in a way you've never seen them before and the other aspect is analysing why are the bees dying everywhere in the world."

Bees congregate on a honeycomb in Blankenfelde, Germany, where local beekeepers claim their yearly loss rates within their bee populations has gone from an average of 10% per year to 30% per year over the last 10 years. Photo: Getty Images

More Than Honey depicts the after-effects of an order by the then Chairman of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, to kill the country's sparrows, which were "stealing" grain from its people.

"In one region of China they had killed the sparrows because they ate too much of their crops and there were many insects taking over and they were killed with pesticides, among them also the honey bees, which was just an accident," Barbara said.

"Then there were no more honey bees left for pollination. People had to start pollinating their own apples.

On April 26, protesters including designers Dame Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett gathered in London's Parliament Square to urge the government to not block EU proposals to suspend the use of bee killing pesticides. Photo: Getty Images

"There is a study at Beijing University to find out if bees or humans are better at pollinating and the answer is not humans."

The "Plan B" of hand-pollinating crops isn't sustainable, Boris said.

"The bee is like a world record holder when it comes to pollination," he said.

"You have 80,000 bees in a hive, 40,000 of these bees go out foraging and each individual bee flies about 10 kilometres; five out, five back... and it can pollinate up to 1,000 flowers so if you just look at one hive, that means the hive, cumulative, can fly 10 times around the globe a day and can pollinate up to 60 million flowers a day.

"You need a lot of workers in China, or in Australia, to get that type of pollination done.

"In simple words, we cannot do it without bees, without an insect pollinator."

The plantations in the US tell the story of the death caused by transporting bees around the country; a service for which growers are paying millions of dollars.

"Because there are no more wild bees who can do the pollination for free, farmers call beekeepers and tell them 'My apples are about to blossom, please bring your hives'," said Barbara.

"Once the apples are pollinated, the beekeepers will pack up the bees and move into the next orchard, where the pears are flowering or blueberries or whatever.

"It's a bit of a vicious cycle, as the honey bee-keeper says in the film.

"He brings his honey bees there, they meet all the other honey bees from the other areas, they infect each other with parasites and they bring them back into the next orchard.

"It's very stressful for them to travel as well so they are not in very good health."

The Baers' work is depicted by Imhoof as research "that could change the world".

Their studies, based at UWA and Rottnest Island, investigate the bees' reproductive biology, their immune system, diseases and infections with the tic-like verroa mites and their survival in an environment that is getting warmer.

"It's very clear that we need to breed better bees in the future," Boris said.

"We need to understand the bee immune system better; how the bee can defend itself.

"And once we know that we can actually aim for getting not resistant bees, but tolerant bees, so bees that can cope with diseases."

THE FUTURE OF BEES

The Baers hope that telling bees' story will increase awareness of the issue and put an end to them being taken for granted.

The documentary has already won Best Documentary awards in Switzerland (where its release was eclipsed only by Skyfall), California and Bavaria.

Barbara said she had been "overwhelmed" by the documentary's success and was most excited by its effect in France.

In February, the Minister for Agriculture, Food Industry and Forestry announced a €40 million (AU $51 million) plan to create a sustainable honeybee industry by reducing pesticide use, supporting research, increasing breeding programs and training young beekeepers.

This month the European Union temporarily banned the use of pesticides that cause brain damage in bees. But they are still in use on Australian crops.

"There is a big debate about how much of a problem this is and we have beekeepers and scientists on one side that basically say 'it is a problem' and you have the chemical industry that says 'there is no effect on the bee, it's not killing it'," Boris said.

"But what we have seen over the past three years is too much scientific evidence to just ignore it.

"The main problem is that it has a small effect on bees, but they cannot operate properly anymore, they cannot run their colonies anymore."

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

At a local level, the CIBER researchers said it was important to source honey from local beekeepers.

"The best thing is if you have a local beekeeper, go and buy the honey there," said Barbara.

"It supports your beekeepers and these are the people we really want.

"We really need our local beekeepers and if you feel like having one yourself, get in touch, we will organise a way to get you involved and if you want to keep bees in your backyard, we have addresses of local beekeepers who will support you.

"The Australian honey is organic; the one that is locally-produced by your beekeepers is the best because it's not mixed with anything else and the bees have actually flown to nice crops.

"Read the label and see where it comes from. In supermarkets you will find honey from WA and when it's from WA that is fine."

Professor Baer said they also hoped people would think twice before killing bees.

"What we see very often is people see bees in their surrounding and their first reaction is to use poison," he said.

"And in some cases that might be necessary, but if people think twice about whether that beehive really has to go, that would be a big step forward so we accept they play a very important role and that we cannot take that role for granted."

12 comments

The extinction of bees is a deliberate act promoted by the incredible prices that could be charged for fruit and veg once the smart ones have succeeded.It has been reported on the internet of the threat of pesticides to the bees and the food supply for years and years now,without any Government legislation to prevent it..Thankfully,there are a few good men left,though.

Commenter

Lane

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 5:22AM

More bees, less humans.Nuff said. Contraceptives in the water supply would be better than pesticides.

Commenter

Realist

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 10:29AM

Will you marry me realist?

Commenter

ash

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 12:35PM

:-) Sorry Ash - already happily married to the most wonderful man in the world! Who thinks like I do as well!

Commenter

Realist

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 12:45PM

Just amagine, no honey in the supermarkets. Australia is the last country in the world that does not suffer the verroa mite. It is the good work of our quarrantine controls that have prevented it so far but they are struggling to keep it jumping across from asia. Bee's importance to humankind is extremely critical and a lot more needs to be done to help protect them. Good on the WA scientists, hopefully they can come up with something to save them.

Commenter

tommy

Location

perth

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 11:54AM

It's about time this issue has been brought to the public attention. We have been lucky in Australia ....SO FAR!

Commenter

sezza

Location

kalgoorlie

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 12:07PM

I think there's enough bees in the almond tree outside my office window that would more than pollinate the entire country...

Commenter

Ailie

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 12:49PM

Nice article! Pesticide or parasite. Not the only cause of decline in honey bee's. Colony Collapse Disorder should have been mentioned, and the link to EMF smog. Its ironic that Silent Spring is the price of progress, the substitution of one buzzing for another...

Commenter

Brynjard

Location

Murdoch

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 12:52PM

There has been major research into be population problems and the cause each time comes down to one large greedy USA corporation and they have had the power to stop the research before the final results that would name them in one instance they had all the hives that were the proof burnt

Commenter

RonaldR

Location

Cockburn Central

Date and time

May 07, 2013, 12:54PM

who would've guessed the movie "the happening" had some truth to it. great article, I have noticed a lack of bees hanging around the gardens lately, I'll be much more appreciative next time I see one buzzing around